![handle is hein.journals/dephcl26 and id is 1 raw text is:
MENTAL HEALTH COURTS: IS THERE ANY HOPE
FOR MENTAL ILLNESS IN AN OUTDATED CRIMINAL
JUSTICE SYSTEM?
Brock Imel*'
ABSTRACT
Mental health awareness is an ever-growing field of study
that has garnered more attention in America after the COVID-19
pandemic.2 As far back as colonial America, mental illness was
considered taboo in society and often reprimanded with punishable
crimes.3 This article seeks to divulge into the history of mental health
and its relation to the law, as well as how the creation of mental
health courts has led to a decrease in recidivism.4
*1 To preface, mental illness is an especially important topic to me as I know many
people who have been affected by their untreated mental illnesses. At my
undergraduate university, I studied political science and psychology which also
fueled my desire to write about the importance of mental health courts. With
experience in psychology and the criminal law field, I felt attached to the
wrongdoings I was seeing and sought to inform readers of the importance of
mental health courts and how state legislatures can better represent these
individuals in criminal proceedings. I strongly feel that in order to provide a free
and fair trial for mentally ill defendants, there must be an inquiry into their mental
illness and the availability of resources to these individuals to not only help them
improve mentally, but to decrease the chances of them committing another crime
and returning to the prison system. I would like to thank the DePaul University
Journal of Health Care Law and my friends and family for their support and
guidance through this process.
2 Ana Carla dos Santos Costa et al., Mental Health in the Post COVID-19 Era:
Future Perspectives, EINSTEIN (SAO PAULO), Apr. 25, 2022, at 1, 2,
https://doi.org/10.31744/einsteinjournal/2022CE6760 ([I]t is expected that
after the pandemic, global health systems will experience increased demands for
mental health care.).
3 See Wulf R6ssler, The Stigma ofMental Disorders, 17 EMBO REPS., 1250, 1250
(2016), https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201643041 (stating that individuals with
mental illness were burned at the stake, murdered, sterilized, etc.).
4 See Charlotte Nickerson, Recidivism: Definition, Causes & Examples,
SIMPLYPSYCH., https://www.simplypsychology.org/recidivism.html (Oct. 10,
2023) (stating that recidivism refers to the relapse of an offender into criminal
behavior).
1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/dephcl26&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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